Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas has admitted to putting his family in ‘third place’ after previously admitting to being a ‘bad father’.
The 79-year-old Hollywood star is a proud father of three and shares his two younger children Dylan and Carys, with his wife and fellow actor Catherine Zeta-Jones who he married in 2000.
The Fatal Attraction star also has a 45-year-old son, Cameron, from his previous marriage with Diandra Luker who has followed in his acting footsteps.
He opened up about his regrets on missing out on Cameron’s childhood while busy with his career, claiming he was ‘overwhelmed and overloaded’.
In an interview with The Telegraph Michael said: ‘Cameron suffered a lot from that time . . . I was just overwhelmed and overloaded by my work. And family was really taking third place after work, our country and then the family as opposed to when Catherine and I got together.’
The actor famously called himself a ‘bad father’ to Cameron in a letter he wrote to a judge presiding over a court case involving his eldest son.
The actor went on to explain that in his second marriage, he has been able to be much more attentive father – but there have been some minor mishaps caused by his age.
The actor then recalled a painful faux pas after the older father was confused for his kids’ grandpa while visiting their university.
Douglas addressed the trials and tribulations of becoming a dad later in life with a pertinent anecdote about getting mistaken as their grandfather while on Dylan, 23, and Carys’, 21, college campus.
‘This is not grandfather’s day, this is parents’ day. I say “I am a parent!”,’ he tragically reminisced to The Telegraph. ‘That was a rough one.’
Much like her older brother who graduated in 2022, Carys attends the prestigious Brown University.
But this is not the first time Douglas has been confused for the family patriarch due to his age. In 2021, he admitted the same mix-up happened while attending Carys’ high school graduation. Not the best streak.
‘I’m not trying to take it personal,’ he said back then. ‘They’re just trying to be nice.’
Despite his disgruntlement at being mislabelled, he is in fact a grandfather to Cameron’s two children Lua and Ryder.
Now older and an empty nester, he can’t always physically keep up with his children in activities such as skiing but, he said: ‘It’s nice having somebody look after you and say, “You okay dad?”’.
Ultimately, it seems like the award-winning actor is looking back with gratitude as he approaches his 25-year wedding anniversary with Zeta-Jones, 54.
‘It’s been a good ride and I’ve been very fortunate, happy with the choices that I’ve made and now am kind of really backing off and smelling the roses a little more, travelling more.’
Douglas is not the only Hollywood star whose raising children at a later stage in life. In April last year 80-year-old Killers of the Flower Moon actor Robert De Niro made headlines after welcoming his daughter, Gia, into the world alongside his girlfriend Tiffany Chen.
In January he told AARP The Magazine that becoming a father to his seventh child was ‘great’.
‘Everything that I’m consumed with or worried about or this and that just goes away when I look at her. So that in itself is, you know, wondrous.’
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